


step step

by billabong (mini_rini)



Category: Bleach
Genre: A comedy of errors, Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, rangiku/momo/kira/hisagi friendship, shuuhei comes in at the wrong time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 08:59:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11272218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mini_rini/pseuds/billabong
Summary: in which izuru spends too much time getting drunk, shuuhei gets the wrong idea and the ninth division all know their vice-captain too well.





	step step

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this to get over the knowledge of hisagi being overstressed and kira missing gin too much
> 
> also rangiku/momo/kira/hisagi ot4 friendship is beautiful and 100% should be explored in an anime filler ep

izuru groans, already drunk out of his mind even though they’d started drinking a mere half hour ago. rangiku is perched on the sofa directly across from him, drinking straight from a bottle, while momo is seated on the floor next to him. both women regard him with amusement, noting his flushed cheeks and dazed eyes.

 

“rangikuuuuuu-san, i can’t handle this anymore!!” izuru moans, half-lolling against momo.

 

“what can’t you handle, kira?” momo questions playfully, nudging his side. izuru yelps as her elbow finds a particularly ticklish spot against his ribs, and he jolts away from her and lists drunkenly to the other side.

 

“hisagi-san’s f-fucking eyes and arms and stupid caring nature, that’s what! i can’t control myself any longer, god - he always looks so good in that dumb sleeveless shihakusho of his even though i see him shivering when the wind gets a little too chilly and he’s so dumb but so cute at the same time i can’t believe i like him,” izuru wails.

 

rangiku snickers. “now, now, kira. are you confessing a lil’ something here?”

 

“there’s nothing to confess!! i just can’t deal with hisagi-san anymore, that’s what! it’s too much for me to handle; why did you even invite him here in the first place?” izuru all but yells.

 

shuuhei comes to an abrupt halt in front of rangiku’s quarters, struck by izuru’s passionate exclamation. it wasn’t a secret among his division that he harboured strong feelings for the shorter blond boy, and his captain often made it a point to tease him secretly about it when they were sent on joint missions with the third division.

 

shuuhei couldn’t deny that he did harbour hope for his feelings to be returned, especially after the way izuru had defeated kazeshini on shuuhei’s behalf during the zanpakuto rebellion, but all that was shattered now based on what he had just heard from rangiku’s apartment.

 

he turns back hastily, deciding to instead send a hell butterfly with a message for rangiku informing her that he was caught up with work and therefore couldn’t make it to their “tea-party,” as the orange-haired woman had coyly called it in front of muguruma-taichou. hopefully they had all been too drunk to sense his reiatsu outside the door just now.

 

reaching up to absentmindedly scratch at his cheek, he is shocked to feel wetness staining his fingers. inside him, kazeshini hums. “never knew that little bastard could affect you this much, huh, master?”

 

shuuhei growls. “shut it, kazeshini. he clearly doesn’t feel the same way for me, so all i can do now is to move on!”

 

the zanpakuto snorts. “sure thing dude, keep lying to yourself. bad enough that kira already said i was the manifestation of your stress, but with the way you’re going now, i think i can see why he said that.”

 

“wait, what?! what did kira say to you?” shuuhei barks, but kazeshini is silent. 

 

“asshole,” he grumbles at his fickle zanpakuto. inside, he feels kazeshini’s smug satisfaction.

 

_ oh well _ , shuuhei thinks to himself.  _ i might as well go home and wallow in my own sadness for a night - i’ll allow myself that much, but i can never let him know that i overheard him today because knowing kira, he’ll blame himself for my feelings. _

 

and with that, he nods to himself and flashsteps back to his own living quarters in the ninth division.

 

****

 

the next day, izuru wakes with a pounding headache and a dry mouth. “shit… where am i?” he mumbles, shielding his eyes from the bright sunlight. his vision is still blurry, gradually coming into focus once he blinks several times. oh. that’s right, he was still at rangiku’s apartment, never making it home last night.

 

the orangette in question was still dead to the world, snoring away on her futon in the next room. izuru winces as he picks his way across the living area, the sound deafening to his poor hangover-addled mind.

 

“rangiku. rangiku-san! it’s time to get up,” he calls, shaking her shoulders before he gives it up as a lost cause. momo is nowhere to be seen, meaning that she probably went home last night. izuru frowns. if he and momo had exited rangiku’s apartment together, there wouldn’t be any fuel added to the rumour mill about him and rangiku being secret lovers.

 

but nevertheless, he had to get to work, and so izuru washed up as quickly as possible and flashstepped away from the apartment, hoping against hope that he wasn’t spotted.

 

unfortunately for him, he wasn’t quick enough, and by lunchtime, he had already heard no less than three of his subordinates gossiping with their coworkers about the true nature of his and rangiku’s relationship. clenching his fists, izuru elected to merely grit his teeth and continue with his work rather than get up to put his division in order. next to him, stamping away at papers, rose laughs.

 

“trouble in paradise, kira-kun?” he questions.

 

izuru jumps. “n-not at all, otoribashi-taicho! i’m just a little distracted today, that’s all.”

 

his captain hums thoughtfully. “well, if that’s the case, feel free to take the rest of today off! i see matsumoto is already here to whisk you off somewhere private….” he trails off, winking knowingly at izuru.

 

izuru balks, mouth already opening to defend himself and his relationship status, but rangiku’s arm wraps around his neck before he can say anything.

 

“i’ll be borrowing him for now, rose-taicho! i’ll make sure to return him in one piece,” she chirps before hauling a sputtering izuru up and flashstepping out of his division.

 

****

 

when they reach a deserted clearing, rangiku looses her hold on izuru, who promptly collapses into a sitting position.

 

“rangiku-san, did you really have to do that?! i’m still hungover from yesterday,” he whines and then falls quiet when he notices the pensive expression on her face.

 

“what are you thinking, rangiku-san?”

 

“have you seen shuu today?” she asks.

 

izuru scrunches his eyebrows as he tries to remember. “no, you haven’t,” wabisuke pipes up helpfully from his inner world. izuru can sense his normally gloomy zanpakuto’s amusement at his current situation, and he sends a wave of displeasure in wabisuke’s direction, hoping that the zanpakuto picks up on it.

 

“wabisuke says we haven’t, so i’ll trust him on that,” he answers.

 

her grin grows and she stands, beckoning him over to a thicket of trees. when izuru peers through the foliage, he sees shuuhei sitting against a tree, seemingly deep in meditation with his katana in front of him.

 

“don’t you think he looks upset?” rangiku whispers.

 

“not really - doesn’t he always look like that? especially since he’s been so stressed with the new captains coming in and everything,” izuru mutters back.

 

rangiku cuffs him on the back of the head, looking disappointed. “are you an idiot?! can’t you tell the difference between a sad shuuhei and a stressed one?”

 

izuru opens his mouth to retort, but rangiku cuts him off with a harsh whisper. “just look at him, kira-kun.” 

 

so he closes his mouth and properly  _ looks _ at one of his closest and oldest friends, who is sitting so quietly and solemnly meditating in his inner world.

 

shuuhei has always been attractive to izuru, with his steadfast attitude and calm eyes. he’d been there to support izuru after his captain’s betrayal, holding in his own pain in order to comfort his friend. even then, his grief at losing his tousen-taichou had been well-concealed under a layer of stress and duty, only manifesting in a subtle downturn of his lips and chronic insomnia. but now, as izuru looks closer at his best friend and crush, he can see how sadness coats every inch of the taller boy’s form, and he is shocked at how long it took him to actually take note of shuuhei’s mood.

 

he turns back to rangiku, who is already wearing a self-satisfied smirk on her face. “why is hisagi-san so sad?” he asks.

 

“i dunno….it’s a mystery, huh?” rangiku answers playfully. izuru narrows his eyes at her, feeling as if he was getting played by the busty fukutaichou.

 

after several minutes of izuru alternating between half-heartedly glaring at her and pressing her for answers, rangiku finally relents. “maybe it’s because of the rumours from today,” she says in a conspiratorial tone of voice.

 

izuru glances at her in confusion. “what rumours?”

 

rangiku clenches her fists in an effort to stop herself beating up the younger boy, and grits out, “the rumours that you and i are sleeping together, you dumbass!”   
  


izuru’s expression clears. “ah, yeah. my division are talking about it too, but what has that got to do with hisagi-san being upset? is he worried that i’ll be spending less time with him?”

 

rangiku sighs. “you two are really meant for each other, being as stupid as the both of you are.”

 

****

 

shuuhei had been distracted at work that day. despite having gone to bed early after unintentionally overhearing izuru’s outburst the previous night, he’d woken up late and been forced to skip his breakfast before rushing to report in for work.

 

“shuuhei, you’re late!” thunders his captain, popping up from behind his desk and attempting to grab him in a headlock.

 

shuuhei ducks effortlessly, already more than used to his captain’s antics. they reminded him strongly of ichigo’s dad, who treated his son in much the same way.

 

“not today, taichou, mashiro,” he grumbles, deftly dodging an errant foot belonging to his co-vice captain.

 

“whyyyyy is shuu so upset?” mashiro whines. “you look like you have a stormcloud over your head!”

 

two sets of eyes are now focused on shuuhei, who flushes angrily. “nothing’s the matter, muguruma-taichou, mashiro. now if you’ll excuse me, i need to get started with my work for today.” 

 

kensei and mashiro exchange a glance behind shuuhei’s back before moving as one, kensei going for shuuhei’s legs and mashiro felling him like a tree with a well-aimed kick to the head. shuuhei yells and struggles, but the vizards have a firm grip on him and he is unable to get loose.

 

“now tell us what’s bothering you, shuu-chan!” mashiro chirps into his ear.

 

shuuhei makes one last attempt at escaping before giving up and sighing. “okay, let me up and i’ll tell you both about it.”

 

****

 

kensei grunts, deep in thought. the room is silent, mashiro having already drifted off to sleep, her head in shuuhei’s lap. as much as the boy rejects her advances, kensei can see how contented he is with the contact he and his co-vice are sharing.

 

“so you’re  _ sure _ that blonde kid said that?”

 

shuuhei nods firmly. “i heard it with my own ears, taichou. but it doesn’t matter, because i’ve resolved to put it behind me and move on from my feelings. it won’t affect my relationship with him nor my work here in the ninth at all!”

 

kensei snorts. “you’re still too uptight, kid. loosen up a little. take the rest of the day off to clear your head, i can see you need it. come back to work when you’ve sorted yourself - and kira - out and not a second before! now off you go,” he commands imperiously.

 

almost like magic, mashiro chooses that moment to kick in her sleep, her foot catching the side of shuuhei’s head and sending him flying out of their shared office.

 

kensei’s head pops through the shuuhei-shaped hole in the wall, waving merrily. “see you later, hisagi!”

 

****

 

while he is making his way over to the forest, he overhears some of the unseated officers from his division gossiping about the true nature of rangiku and izuru’s relationship. apparently, izuru had spent the night alone with rangiku and was seen leaving her apartment in a great hurry the morning after.

 

when the officers catch sight of shuuhei within hearing range, they gasp and hurriedly bow, excusing themselves to perform whatever menial labour they were supposed to have been doing instead of wagging their tongues.

 

heart heavier than before, shuuhei continues his lonely trek into the forest where he and tousen-taichou used to train before his captain had defected.

 

****

 

after hours of fruitlessly trying to communicate with kazeshini, who was being inordinately stubborn, shuuhei decides to head back to the publishing house to get some work done free of his captain and vice-captain’s noisy disapproval.

 

unfortunately, just as he settles himself at his desk, one of his harried subordinates comes to him with a list used to track the vice-captains’ report submissions. skimming over the list, shuuhei can already see gaps next to at least four names, and he groans internally. all of these errant fukutaichous will need to be pestered to hand in their reports, and he will most likely have to be the one to do it seeing as the rest of his subordinates are terrified of their superiors.

 

as distracted as he is, shuuhei is still aware enough of his surroundings to note when izuru’s distinctive reiatsu enters the building. his shoulders are stiff with discomfort but his expression is resolute as he marches up to shuuhei and asks him out for a drink after work.

 

shuuhei is tempted to turn the invitation down, but as he is opening his mouth to agree to izuru’s request, his sleep-deprived brain beats him to it, making him blurt out a catty, “don’t you have better things to be doing than hanging out with someone you can’t stand?”

 

izuru’s eyes widen, and shuuhei briefly feels sorry for upsetting him, but a voice inside him that sounds suspiciously like kazeshini tells him to “ _ fuck kira’s opinion of you, you’re just telling him what you truly feel! _ ” and shuuhei feels mildly comforted by the reassurance. he’d spent so long hiding what he truly felt in favour of helping other people shoulder their own burdens that he’d forgotten how it felt to simply say what he was thinking without worrying about how it would affect the other person.

 

shuuhei is pulled sharply from his thoughts by izuru’s voice. “....when? when have i  _ ever _ told you that i hated you?!” the blonde boy’s eyes are anguished, begging shuuhei to explain himself.

 

at that, everything shuuhei saw the previous night and the rumours he’d heard the morning after come pouring out of him. if he had been less distressed, he would have realised that almost everyone in the publishing house has paused their work to watch their fukutaichou bare his heart to the fukutaichou of the third division. none of them are even bothering to conceal their rapt attention, too absorbed in seeing how the vice-captain of the 3rd would react to their vice-captain’s feelings.

 

a collective gasp goes up around the room when izuru bursts out laughing. shuuhei’s eyes widen with hurt and surprise, but before he can turn to flee the room, izuru catches his wrist.

 

“hisagi-san,” he says warmly, voice still holding tones of laughter in it. “it seems that there was a misunderstanding. you can ask momo or rangiku-san about it, but i was actually really saying that i couldn’t handle how attractive you are! i was worried that i wouldn’t be able to control myself from confessing if we had gotten drunk together, not that i couldn’t stand your presence. please believe me on this, hisagi-san! i would never intentionally hurt you.”

 

izuru’s gaze is fixed on the floor, but his voice is sincere, and he is still holding tightly to shuuhei’s wrist. he doesn’t seem to realise that he has just declared his feelings for shuuhei in front of pretty much the entire ninth division, but shuuhei can’t stop a smile from spreading over his face.

 

izuru looks up from the floor then, and does a double take when he sees how broadly shuuhei is smiling.

 

“w-why do you look so happy? i’ve never seen you smile like this before,” he says dumbly.

 

before shuuhei can reply, someone from his division shouts, “he’s been stupid for you since you two came into the gotei 13, kira-fukutaichou! he’s just happy that you’ve confessed to him.” that statement is followed by multiple other shinigamis nodding in agreement, with murmurs of assent and laughter intermixed.

 

“c-confessed??” stutters izuru. then his brain seems to catch up to him and his face crumples in embarrassment. “oh my god, i just did it didn’t i. hisagi-san, i am so-”

 

at this point, izuru registers that he is still holding shuuhei’s wrist, and promptly drops it like an especially hot cup of sencha.

 

“goodbye, hisagi-san. it was nice knowing you, but i’m going to drown myself and erase all memory of my existance now.” izuru turns and hurriedly marches out of the publishing house, but before he can flashstep away, shuuhei darts out of the building and snags his shihakusho sleeve.

 

“kira-san, don’t you want to hear what i have to say before you go?” he asks coyly, eyes shining brighter than izuru can remember ever seeing before.

 

deciding to play along, izuru replies, “well, as long as it’s an answer that’s as good as how you look right now.”

 

shuuhei snorts and whacks izuru’s arm, who yells and leaps back. “i think that’s a bit too out of character for you, gloomy-kira-san.”

 

izuru steps forward boldly and grabs shuuhei’s face, pulling him down for a quick peck on the lips. “is that a bit too cheeky for you too, straightlaced-hisagi-san? because i have more of where that came from, but if you aren’t up for it….”

 

shuuhei grabs him around the waist and flashsteps away in a cloud of dust, leaving behind a roomful of curious subordinates. by evening, the entirety of the gotei 13 have been informed about this latest piece of gossip.

 

rose tuts when he hears the news. “and here i was hoping for matsumoto to get kira-kun to loosen up a little! instead he gets kensei’s brat, which i’ll never hear the end of from mashiro…” 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> ok but imagine hisagi and kira slowdancing to suran's step step (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8md4g-xHdkk)
> 
>  
> 
> also i know that if hisagi felt kira’s reiatsu entering the publishing house he would have felt matsum and kira’s reiatsu when they were at the forest but let’s just say that hisagi was so absorbed in getting kazeshini to talk to him that he completely missed them
> 
> tumblr @ kuroophyll, please come and talk to me!!


End file.
